Messages from the aether: Surviving the festive season

Heather Dowling, Revive editor, shares some useful tips for surviving the Christmas and New Year season.

Secret Santa generatordrawnames.com.au
Each year, my friends and I spend way too much on presents for each other. But this year we’ve given up on that and have opted on a Secret Santa ballot instead. And because we don’t do things by halves, we’re using this cool site to do it. Once someone has created the group, each person in the draw simply enters their email address and their Christmas wish list or tips (optional) and the site does the rest! When everyone in the group has logged on, the site will generate the Secret Santa ballot and send each person their recipient with any info they’ve provided. Too easy!

The Sane Blogsane.org/the-sane-blog
The Sane Australia blog is an impressive exploration into mental health and its many different aspects. There’s posts on all sorts of topics from dealing with loneliness, anxiety, stress and positive ways to engage with and talk about the topic in the public space. The website itself is a wealth of resources, but the blog goes so much deeper on specific threads. Useful topics in the lead up to Christmas include ‘Tips to survive Christmas’, ‘FIFO at Christmas’ (podcast episode), and ‘Is it okay to ignore Christmas?’

Keeping New Year’s resolutionslifehack.org/articles/communication/50-new-yearsresolution-ideas-and-how-achieve-each-them.html
So, Christmas is done. You’re tired, overfed and needing some alone time. What better time to start making New Year’s resolutions! Sigh. We hear all the time that New Year’s resolutions often fail within the first few months. But the team at Lifehack have put together this handy list of some of the most common resolutions and how to actually keep them. It’s aimed at an American audience, but handy and encouraging with loads of links to further reading. We could all use some encouragement for creating positive change in our lives.